Kids who play with Lego and video games ‘develop a better spatial awareness later in life’

Scientists say youngsters who used construction toys or interactive devices are more likely to succeed later in life

By Amanda Devlin

6th February 2018, 8:30 am

Updated: 7th February 2018, 12:59 pm

PLAYING with Lego and video games could help children develop a greater awareness as they grow, a study claims.

Youngsters who used construction toys or interactive devices shone in tests.

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Children who played games excelled in subjects like science and engineering when they hit the final years in schooling

Dr Anne Gold, of Cires Education & Outreach centre in Colorado, said: "By providing spatial training and demanding toys before schooling, we can develop skills important in science and maths.

"The research from the US found children who played with construction-based toys such as Lego, or with certain types of video games outperformed other peers in tests of spatial reasoning, like the skill needed to mentally rotate objects."

Scientists say playing with the toys could help children succeed in subjects like science and engineering when they hit the final years in schooling.

Dr Gold, analysing the study by University of Colorado Boulder, added: "The human brain is malleable and trainable.

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Those who played with construction-based toys achieved higher spatial skill scores

"By providing spatial training to K-12 children and providing spatially demanding toys before schooling starts, we can give them the opportunity to develop skills important in fields like science, technology, engineering and maths."

"What you choose to do over your life can affect your spatial reasoning.

"It doesn't need to be video games or Legos specifically, but you should engage in something that's spatially demanding. It can really make a difference."

The researchers examined hundreds of students and found a huge difference in their spatial skills with scores ranging from between six and 75 per cent correct responses on a written, spatial-knowledge test.

The team then set about trying to explain why there was such a difference in results in the tests.

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For the study, carried out at University of Colorado at Boulder, 345 students in the took part in a multiple-choice questions that required them to mentally rotate obscure shapes, for example, or visualise an object's cross section.

The results, published today in Geosphere, show spatial skill scores were significantly higher among students who engaged with construction-based toys, and certain video games.

Overall, male students performed better than female students on the test, but young women and men who played with construction-based toys and video games performed equally well.